Chasing Catalina | Book One: Worshipping Ashes

4. | The Darkness

Perhaps it all stems from an inner darkness. Maybe everything that I'm feeling right now originates from a deeper desire to be loved. Maybe that's all horseshit and I'm just some guy who wants to know this woman. Who wants to have her, to keep her and to break her.

    Unfortunately, I have matters to attend to elsewhere. The serpent Barbados is waiting for me somewhere and trust me, I will find him. He is the next name on my shit list that will die in a chair in some abandoned building. Crew to help me or not, I will get to him. I will get the answers I need to get back to where I belong, and as much as Catalina has captured my attention, I knew what was on the priority list.

    Once I returned the dishes from Catalina's booth as well as my own that was once abandoned back towards the counter. I threw away the uneaten food behind the counter in the trash can, taking in the grateful hug from Rebecca before stepping back out into the wild world.

    The entity that I was... dulled to humanity as if this was my punishment, because it was, but the fortunate part of this punishment was Catalina. The redheaded relief to the dark dwelling of my surroundings.

    I watch Catalina from the car until she gets through the gates of the base, because I am a perfect gentleman. Stopping across the street at a gas station posing as someone who was innocently drinking a coffee and catching up on the local news. A tablet leaning against the steering wheel with the gas station coffee pressed to my palm. A glance upwards as I watched the Military post police lean against Catalina's car. My coffee now paused at my lips.

    My darkening eyes stare at him for a long moment as I imagine the worst.

    I could get away with murdering an MP. It wouldn't be hard of course, but it wouldn't be easy either. FBI, Homeland Security, MP's... they're all fucking in bed with one another. Oh, and not to mention the security footage that's posted at the top of that booth building where the poor fucker had to sit and sweat all damn day. Tapping into that shit isn't like tapping into CCTV. A lot of different firewalls that I'm not exactly used to.

    The man who was leaning against her car just to watch him back up with his hands up. Handing her a card and Catalina skidding into the base. That was when I snapped out of my daze and my imagination of how I would kill the man. A soft chuckle slipping from my lips.

    "Atta girl." I mutter to myself before looking back down to the tablet again. Searching the name Barbatos in the area, a continuous list continues in the search before one pinged. An alert noise dinging as a profile emerged. A dude with longer blonde hair spirals down his face with blue eyes. I squint lightly as I lift the tablet and tilt my head. Lowering the coffee into the cup holder and pushing the same hand to the steering wheel, the engine coming alive once again.

    "Hello, Barbatos... long time no see." I mutter darkly as I back out of the parking space, pulling out onto the road and driving away from the gas station.

    It was time to play a darker game.

. . .

    I was waiting far too long to be actively productive. The dark clouds rolled overhead and the thunder in the distance rumbled loudly as I looked up from the steering wheel to the sky above the car. A thundering grumble matching God's irritation with my actions back at him.

    "Yeah, yeah, yeah..." I muttered as I looked to the passenger side seat and grabbed the tablet again. Scanning the profile I had gotten on Barbatos. Forty-three year old millionaire douchebag with three skanks always hanging around. He was living larger than humanity could ever ask for. What I couldn't understand was why?